‘Sailing the South Coast, Smerwick to Youghal’, (detail)
The coastline, from the wild and rugged
Atlantic coast of County Kerry, traversing the beautiful deeply indented ragged
coastline of West Cork to the low, plainer shores of East Cork - the porous membrane
of the southern edge of the island of Ireland is continually traversed with
arrivals and departures - military, commercial, criminal, or cultural - which
has for long been a vital threshold of contact with continental Europe and
beyond.
It is this coastline, one of the best recreational sailing grounds in the
world, that lies at the source of my work in the exhibition 'Voyage’ and my
attempt to: re-create, re-present, re-imagine, re-live, re-invent, a ‘sea
journey’ and map it in ‘Sailing on the South Coast, Smerwick to Youghal’
The print is based on my experiences of sailing in these waters, intermittently
over the last fifteen years or so, and draws on, among other things, memory,
the logs, sketches, charts, photographs, stories and histories of the islands,
ports and harbours on the way. It is loaded with historical and contemporary
references (… the massacre of the Spanish expedition in Smerwick Harbour 1580,
the Battle of Kinsale 1603, which marked the end of Gaelic Ireland, C18
smuggling in Derrynane, the cocaine haul off Mizzen Head 2008, the sacking of
Baltimore by Dutch and Algerian pirates 1631..), coastal navigation features
(..tides, obstacles, harbours, quays, marinas, shipping traffic, leisure
traffic, navigation buoys..) and many of the wonderful landmarks: lighthouses
(.. An Tearracht, Fort Point Valentia, Mizzen Head, Galley Head, The Old head
of Kinsale, Roaches Point Automatic, Ballycotton..), fishing villages
(..Dingle, Knightstown, Portmagee, Derrynane, Crookhaven, Skull, Baltimore,
Glandore, Union Hall, Castletownsend Courtmacsherry, Kinsale..), magical
Islands (.. the Blaskets, the Skelligs, Valentia, Clear and Sherkin..),
bays and harbours (..Dingle Bay, Bantry Bay, Roaring Water Bay, Gascanane
Sound, Dursey Sound…) and personal memories, experiences both real and
imagined.
Further information:
Link to
Very Well Thus! Sea Journeys in Contemporary Art
Nancy Campbell, Huffington Post, 28/04/2013http://www.kh-do.de/en/exhibitions/exhibitions2013/voyage_en.html